Work Package 1
By the end of the project, we can state that we have achieved the desired results regarding WP1 and since Q4/2019, we started mass production. Project execution took slightly longer than originally anticipated requiring extension of three months for the work package. This related to different aspects of product and production quality and maturity. With the extension, we were able to reach higher product quality for the sales start. We have demonstrated technological leadership in the field.
Work Package 2
In WP2, we made the biggest changed during the project – we shifted our focus from developing a physical controller to integrated hand-tracking. We were able to put in place the needed enablers for hand-tracking from the hardware perspective. From software perspective, we were able to deliver a lot of features related to hand-tracking, including hand occlusion and depth map, which were seen as the critical needs of the target customers in their use cases.
While we weren’t able to release gestures and interactions with hands by the end of the project, we managed to create most of the enablers to do so in the future.
Work Package 3
WP3 concentrated on pilots, which turned out to be very beneficial for the project overall. We gained a lot of valuable insights about the use cases and needs of potential customers, about the functionality and usability of our product, about compatibility and performance of different setups both from software and hardware perspective, and about maturity and technical readiness of our hardware and software. Pilot partners benefited in form of getting early access to the technology and partly our support for their use case development.
Initial thinking of the partners needed to be revised during the project as we learned more about the capabilities of and willingness to put an effort into the project by different partners. Ultimately we feel that the selected partners were the right ones to reach the best possible outcome for the project and Varjo overall.
Work Package 4
We launched XR-1 in May 2019 and announced commercial availability and started shipments in Dec 2019. High-quality materials were produced in form of press and media materials, videos, social media posts and web site. Varjo was presented in multiple important trade shows during the project.
We built a strong sales channel of over 25 value-added resellers enabling local presence in our key markets.